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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Kingdom of God. 
Only Believe. 

What is Christian Healing. 

BY 

G. F. & M. E. CHAPMAN, 

17 HOWARD STREET, - - - MALDEN, MASS. 

THREE PAPERS ON PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. 

On and after January 1st, 1888, 
MRS. M. K CHAPMAN, 

WILL RECEIVE 

PATIENTS AT HER RESIDENCE, 

17 Howard Street, Malden, Mass. 



Absent Treatment if desired. All correspondence 
promptly attended to. 



Christ the Healer. 



A SERIES OF 



LETTERS ADDRESSED 



Investigator of Christian Science. 



By G. F. CHAPMAN. 



BOSTON : 

H. H. CARTER & KARRICK, 

No. 3 Beacon Sfreet. 

1888. 




• cr 



l0f coso* 68 *' 



COPYRIGHT, 1888, 

By G. F. CHAPMAN. 






CHRIST THE HEALER. 



Dear Friend : 

You appear to be very sincere in wishing 
to find out what true healing is, and I will 
gladly do all in my power to help you; but 
the way in which you are trying to learn is 
so different from the way in which I have 
been led, that the only aid it is possible for 
me to give you will come by acquainting 
you as far as I am able with the revelation 
which has come to me. 

I cannot, if I would, investigate the subject 
of healing by the light of natural science, as 
you are trying to do. Such study requires a 
kind of knowledge that I lack. Nor would 
the question be really settled, to my think- 
ing, even if the theories of the mental healers 
should be either established or destroyed by 
scientific tests ; for, if it be Christian healing 
of which the world stands in perishing need, 



6 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

moral as well as physical regeneration, the 
cure must be wrought by something more 
powerful than any medicine with which 
material science deals. 

Through trying experiences and sore 
afflictions have I been led to see that it is 
the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and not the 
precepts of worldly wisdom, that brings men 
to a knowledge of the truth and reveals to 
them the way of eternal life. " Acquaint 
yourself with God, whom to know aright 
is life eternal, " is the burden of scripture. 
"This is life eternal,'' said our Lord in his 
memorable prayer, " that they might know 
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
whom thou hast sent." 

The diseases from which men suffer 
belong not to the body alone, but affect 
the mind also, and have their source or 
cause in the wrong beliefs and actions of the 
human race. The evils of life did not begin 
when certain bodily maladies first appeared 
among men ; the trouble dates back to that 
period in the history of mankind called " the 
Fall." The Fall implies a previous state of 



CHRIST THE HEAEER. / 

perfection, and the conclusion seems most 
reasonable that true healing is accomplished 
by the redemption of the world through 
Christ. To answer your question, then, my 
friend, and solve the problem about which 
so many people are earnestly thinking, it is 
necessary to learn what that perfection was 
from which mankind fell, what the fall itself 
implies, and what true salvation means. 

The only authority on this subject with 
which I am acquainted is the Bible; and, 
while I am not wise enough to understand 
the truth, much less to enlighten you, a deep 
sense of the meaning of Holy Writ has been 
given me, which, if I can express it, may 
enable others to perceive the same glorious 
light that is shining in upon my once dark- 
ened mind. 

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of 
Judaea, a few wise men from the East saw 
his star and hastened to worship him as the 
promised Christ; but most of the people 
among whom he was brought up failed to 
recognize his true character. And later, 
when he went about the villages and high- 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 



ways of Palestine doing the work of him 
that sent him, his own nation, which he 
fain would save, rejected his claims and 
treated him as an imposter. While consid- 
ering this fact, the question often arises, 
Does the world, to-day, understand the true 
Christ any better than the Jews did in the 
time of Jesus ? 

The common belief of Christians is that 
the Saviour of mankind came in the fulness 
of time in the person of Jesus, the only 
begotten Son of God, and that men who 
died before he appeared on earth were 
saved, if at all, by faith in a promised 
Messiah. Men to-day do not seem to 
understand, any more than the blind Phari- 
sees did eighteen hundred years ago, that 
the names " Christ " and " Jesus" stand for 
two distinct truths that ought not to be 
confounded. The birth of Jesus, the man, 
was, indeed, the beginning of the Christian 
era; but Christ, the only begotten Son 
of God, was not born of Mary, and dwelt 
in the bosom of his Father before the 
human race began, when the morning stars 
sang together. 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 



On the supposition that Jesus and Christ 
are identical, the first chapter of the Gospel 
according to St. John is an unsolved riddle; 
but, admit the other view, and the sacred 
words become luminous with a divine mean- 
ing. In the beginning, when, as stated in 
Genesis, God created the heavens and the 
earth, was the Word, that is, Christ, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was 
God ; for Christ declared, " I and my Father 
are one." All terrestrial things were made 
by him ; life was in him ; he was the light 
that shineth in darkness ; he was in the 
world, and the world was made by him, and 
the world knew him not. "No man hath 
seen God at any time," says verse 18th; 
" the only begotten Son, which is in the 
bosom of the Father, he hath declared 
Him." 

In my own experience, a new light broke 
in upon the vexed problems of life when my 
eyes were opened to perceive the true 
teaching of the Bible, as I believe, in regard 
to Christ ; and it may surprise you, as it did 
me at first, to learn that the key to the 



10 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

mystery of Christ is contained in the account 
of the creation, as given in the first and 
second chapters of Genesis. 

As that account is commonly read and 
explained, the true sense, as I now under- 
stand it, is not made clear. It is usually 
considered to be descriptive of the first 
appearance of the visible world of the 
senses, — of men and beasts, birds and fishes, 
trees and herbs, as we see them now — 
and no account is taken of the immaterial 
substance that constitutes the true prototypes 
of the forms seen in the natural world. 

What is often spoken of as the " Six Days' 
Creation " I understand to be a presentation 
of God's idea or pattern of the yet unformed 
world, as a spiritual reality. By reading the 
opening verses, we find that God's creation 
was unlike that which we now behold, for 
it was without form and void. In the 
beginning it was not visible, for darkness 
was upon the face of the deep. Nor did 
it become active until the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of this dark abyss. 
Then, at his command, appeared day and 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 11 

night, dry land, vegetation, sun, moon and 
stars, fowl of the air, fish of the sea, beasts 
of the field, and man, made in God's own 
image. But these were not the external 
forms of the visible creation, but their spiritual 
prototypes, the original patterns or models 
after which the visible things of this world 
were to be formed. God created the spiritual 
realities that are represented to our senses 
in what we call nature, but the realities them- 
selves exist as the spiritual idea of the 
Creator, without visible form and void of all 
material qualities. 

This may appear at first to be a strained 
interpretation of the account given in the 
first chapter of the Old Testament, but is 
it not the correct one ? If the account in 
the first chapter describes the external 
creation, how could it be true, as stated 
in the first verse of the second chapter, 
that " thus the heavens and the earth were 
finished, and all the host of them ? " The 
external creation did not cease; it is in 
progress to-day, as we very well know, and 
has been going on through all the ages 



12 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 



in which man has inhabited the earth. It 
will continue through all time. Generations 
come and go. Races of men are exter- 
minated, and new races take their place. 
Earlier forms of animal and plant life become 
extinct, and other forms spring up in their 
stead. 

The Bible writers speak of the creation 
as still going on, and the Psalms especially 
abound with expressions to show that their 
author considered the creative works of the 
Lord as continually going forward : The 
heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and 
the firmament showeth his handiwork. By 
the word of the Lord were the heavens 
made, and all the .host of them by the breath 
of his mouth. He gathereth the waters 
of the sea together as an heap ; he layeth 
up the depth in storehouses. From the 
place of his habitation he looketh upon all 
the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth 
all their hearts alike. Come, behold the 
works of the Lord, what desolations he hath 
made in the earth. Which by his strength 
setteth fast the mountains. Now visitest 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 13 

the earth, and waterest it. How terrible art 
thou in thy works ! Come and see the 
works of the Lord. He ruleth by his power 
forever. The Lord is a sun and shield. 
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his 
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the 
children of men. He turneth the wilderness 
into a standing water, and the dry ground 
into watersprings. And there he maketh 
the hungry to dwell. His work is honor- 
able and glorious. The Lord is my strength, 
and is become my salvation. This is the 
day which the Lord hath made. Thy hands 
hath made me and fashioned me. He 
causeth vapors to ascend from the ends of 
the earth ; he maketh lightnings for the 
rain ; he bringeth the wind out of his 
treasuries. One generation shall praise thy 
works to another, and shall declare thy 
mighty acts. I will speak of the glorious 
honor of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous 
works. Thy kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth 
throughout all generations. The Lord is 
righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his 



14 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

works. He sendeth forth his commandment 
upon earth : his word runneth very swiftly. 
He giveth snow like wool : he scattereth 
the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth 
his ice like morsels : who can stand before 
his cold? He sendeth out his word and 
melteth them : he causeth his wind to blow, 
and then waters flow. These and many 
other familiar passages show, not only that 
the psalmist considered that the elemental, 
creative forces operating in nature are the 
direct will and power of the Lord, but that 
creation is going on, and is not a finished 
act. 

Nor can we read Psalm cxxxvi. without 
perceiving that the Lord, to whom the 
author ascribed all the wonderful works 
wrought in his time, is the same being who 
originally created the objects seen in the 
external world ; for he plainly says : O give 
thanks unto the Lord of lords: . . . To 
him that by wisdom made the heavens, 
stretched out the earth above the waters, 
made great lights — the sun, moon and 
stars ; that smote Egypt, brought out Israel 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 15 

from among them, divided the Red sea, led 
his people through the wilderness, gave them 
the land promised to their fathers, and 
bestowed upon them all the blessings they 
enjoyed. The same positive truth is also 
clearly set forth in the verses of Psalm civ. 

From what has been cited, as w T ell as 
from much other evidence that might be 
easily adduced, it is certain that the external 
creation has not come to an end, and that 
the " heavens and the earth, and all the host 
of them," that were "finished" when "on 
the seventh day God ended his work which 
he had made," must be something else. 

Now, I cannot give any learned reasons 
for what appears to me so plain a truth that 
no one need miss it, that the Six-Days' 
Creation was the making of the spiritual 
prototypes, after which God in his infinite 
wisdom designed the future visible universe 
to be fashioned. These existed as his ideas 
from the beginning; and we, being finite, 
cannot conceive of a time when they did not 
exist. When at God's simple word, these 
spiritual prototypes flashed into being, he 



16 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

pronounced them good, and all being finished, 
he rested from his work, and left the 
expression of these ideas or prototypes in 
external forms to be carried out, as described 
in the second chapter of the Book of 
Genesis, 

On reading this chapter, we observe that 
the first three verses record the fact that 
God had finished the Six-Days' Creation, 
that he rested on the seventh day, and for 
that reason that he blessed and sanctified it. 
Now, mark the peculiarity of the verses that 
follow. The creating power is designated 
by a different name. No longer is it God, 
the Father, who performs the work ; but the 
Lord God is thenceforth spoken of as the 
creator. Up to this time the Lord God had 
not caused it to rain upon the earth, and 
there was no man. Why this abrupt change 
in the appellation of the Creator ? And how 
is the statement that there was not a man to 
be reconciled with the text of the twenty- 
seventh verse of the previous chapter, 
which says : " So God created man in his 
own image, in the image of God created 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 17 

he him ? " Let us consider the last query 
first. 

It appears very plain to me that the 
creation of man spoken of in the first chapter 
refers to that spiritual prototype, which is 
the real man and perfect image of God. In 
the seventh verse of the second chapter it 
appears that the Lord God gave visible 
expression to the spiritual model which God 
had created, by forming a material repre- 
sentation of it "of the dust of the ground.'' 
God created a spiritual prototype, the Lord 
God formed an external resemblance to that 
model. God created the one perfect image ; 
the Lord God formed a being out of matter, 
which represented to the senses as far as was 
possible, the image of God which was its 
prototype. 

The query, " Why this abrupt change in 
the appellation of the Creator?" is answered, 
if we accept the truth of the statement that 
God had already finished his creative work, 
and that the forming of the external or visible 
creation was and still is a work carried on 
by the Lord. By this it is not meant that a 



18 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

totally different power assumed and earned 
forward the work of creation, for that would 
imply the existence of more than one deity. 
The name Lord God, and the name Lord, as 
frequently used throughout the Bible, refer 
to the spiritual likeness of God, the account 
of which is given in verses 26-7, of chapter 
first, where it is called man. 

When God said " Let us make man in our 
image,'' it was not the first specimen of the 
corporeal, earthly man that was created ; 
this ''image of God" was God's ideal man, 
the spiritual prototype, of which each indi- 
vidual of the race is the physical expression. 
This was the real and perfect man, to whom 
power was given to people the earth with 
corporeal beings to represent him, and all 
varieties of animal and vegetable life, formed 
after God's idea. 

Again, this perfect image of the Father 
was Gods only begotten son, existing from 
the beginning, whose prerogative it was to 
create all lower orders of terrestrial life. 
Me is the Lord, who made the heavens and 
the earth, the sea, and all that in them is. 



CHRIST THE HEALER. 19 

He is the Lord, who appeared as Christ, in 
the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and became 
the savior of the world. 

The creation of the spiritual prototypes 
had been finished, and a new mode of the 
divine creative power was manifested as the 
Lord God, maker of the forms of the visible 
or external world. In the Psalms he is 
called " the Lord, our maker," the Lord who 
" made the heavens and the earth." " It is 
he that hath made us and not we our- 
selves." — Psalms c, 3. " Who laid the 
foundations of the earth, that it should not 
be removed forever." — civ., 5. " The works 
of the Lord are great, sought out of all them 
that have pleasure therein." — cxi., 2. " Let 
them praise the name of the Lord : for he 
commanded, and they were created." — 
cxlviii., 5. 

Paul's testimony on this point, as given in 
the first chapter of Hebrews, and elsewhere, 
is very clear. The meaning is plain that 
the Lord, who in the beginning laid the 
foundation of the earth, is the only begotten 
Son of God, whose throne is for ever and 



20 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

ever. Still further is this view confimed if 
we now compare chapter v., 5 : " So also 
Christ glorified not himself to be made an 
high priest ; but he that said unto him, 
Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten 
thee." In Colossians 1., the same apostle 
reiterates this view ; for he says " Who [the 
Son] is the image of the invisible God, the 
first-born of every creature : For by him 
were all things created, that are in heaven, 
and that are in earth, . . . And he is 
before all things, and by him all things 
consist," — Verses 15-17. In this connec- 
tion read also II, Corinthians iv., 4 : " Lest 
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, 
who is the image of God, should shine unto 
them." I. Corinthians, x., 4, 9 : " And did 
all drink the same spiritual drink : for they 
drank of that spiritual Rock that followed 
them : and that Rock was Christ." " Neither 
let us tempt Christ, as some of them also 
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." 
Acts vil, 37, 38: "This [Christ] is that 
Moses, which said unto the children of 
Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God 



CHRIST THE HEADER. 21 

raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto 
me ; him shall ye hear. This is he that was 
in the church in the wilderness with the 
angel which spake to him in the mount 
Sina, and with our fathers: who received 
the lively oracles to give unto us." Colos- 
sians i., 18 : "And he is the head of the 
body, the church : who is the beginning, the 
first-born from the dead ; that in all things 
he might have the pre-eminence." Ephe- 
sians iv., 12, 13: " For the edifying of the 
body of Christ: Till we all come in the 
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of 
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 
the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ." John 1., 1, 14, 18 : " In the begin- 
ning was the Word" [Christ]. "And the 
Word w T as made flesh, and dwelt among us, 
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the 
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace 
and truth." "No man hath seen God at 
any time ; the only begotten Son, which is 
in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared 
him." John in., 35: "The Father loveth 
the Son, and hath given all things into his 



22 CHRIST THE HEALER. 

hand." John viii., 58: " Jesus said unto 
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before 
Abraham was, I am." John xvn., 5 : " And 
now, O Father, glorify thou me, with thine 
-own self with the glory which I had with 
thee before the world was." Matthew xxn., 
45 : " If David then call him Lord, how is 
he his son ?" Matthew xvi., 16: " Thou 
art the Christ, the son of the living God." 
Mark viii., 29: "Thou art the Christ." 



THE FALL. 



If the correct interpretation of the many 
texts now cited make it evident that Christ, 
the only begotten son of God, existing from 
the beginning, is the creator of the external 
world, as declared in the second chapter of 
Genesis, you will find it easy to perceive 
that this only begotten Son is the one 
spiritual or real man, of which the race 
of corporeal men are the visible expressions. 

To perceive this is very important ; for 
when we realize that there is only one real 
man, who is the spiritual prototype, having 
power to form an indefinite number of 
material expressions of himself, we can 
better understand how it is that the real man 
is perfect, and cannot be affected by what is 
called disease and sin. We see also that 
it is through Christ, as a perfect prototype, 
that we have any idea at all of divine 
oerfection. 



24 THE FALL. 

And lest my use of the term tl corporeal 
man " lead any one astray, let me explain 
that by it I intend to designate an individual 
of the human race on earth, with all that 
belongs to him as a personality ; not his 
physical body alone, but his soul as well ; 
and my reason for calling this creature a 
" corporeal man " is merely to distinguish 
the external expression of the one real man 
from the prototype itself. 

Adam and Eve were the perfect outward 
or material expression of the one real or 
spiritual man, who was created male and 
female ; for the Lord God " breathed into 
his nostrils the breath of life, and man 
became a living soul." But it was not Adam 
who exercised dominion over all the lower 
orders of creation. He was what the Hebrew 
meaning of the word implies, the earth man, 
that is, the earthly or visible expression of 
man. He had no life of himself, but derived 
his life from the breath of his creator, the 
spiritual man. He could do nothing of 
himself, but was the external organ through 
which the power of the real man was made 
manifest on the earth. 



THE FALL. 25 

The same truth is taught in the parable 
of the Vine and the Branches, recorded in 
the fifteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. 
Christ, the spiritual man, is the true vine, 
the Father is the husbandman, and external 
or corporeal human beings are the branches. 
How forcibly does Jesus here teach the 
lesson that the external man has no life or 
power in himself, but is wholly dependent 
on the vine. He is simply the outward 
expression of the spiritual man, and is 
created only as a medium through which 
the spiritual will expresses itself. 

We see, also, that it was not the spiritual 
man that fell, but the corporeal man. The 
lapse of Adam, or the earth-man, from a 
state of perfect innocence represented in 
Genesis as expulsion from the garden of 
Eden, took place when the branches were 
broken off from the vine, and the external 
was no longer a true expression of the 
spiritual or real. How this fall came about 
is explained in Romans i., 2 1-25 : " Because 
that, when they knew God, they glorified 
him not as God, neither were thankful ; but 



26 THE FALL. 

became vain in their imaginations, and their 
foolish heart was darkened. Professing 
themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
and changed the glory of the uncorruptible 
God into an image made like to corruptible 
man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, 
and creeping things. Wherefore God also 
gave them up to uncleanness through the 
lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their 
own bodies between themselves: who 
changed the truth of God into a lie, and 
worshiped and served the creature [corpo- 
real man] more than the creator [spiritual 
man] , who is blessed for ever." 

When the fallen man realized in a measure 
his true condition and began once more to 
turn his gaze toward the Vine, or true light, 
the question naturally arose, Where am I? 
But to his darkened mind it seemed like the 
voice of God calling to him, and saying, 
" Adam, where art thou ? " With this came 
the knowledge that he was separated in 
thought from the spiritual source of life, and 
hence was generated the fear of danger ; 
and he sought to cover himself from the 



THE FALL. 27 

light which revealed the fact of his dis- 
obedience. 

The sign that man had fallen was that he 
came to know good from evil ; for we read 
in Genesis ill., 5: " For God doth know 
that in the day ye eat thereof [z. e %} of the 
forbidden tree], then your eyes shall be 
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
good and evil." As if the tempter had said : 
After eating that fruit, ye, who are now 
simply the corporeal external expressions 
and mediums of the Lord, shall become to 
yourselves what ye now think God is. 

Is it not remarkable, also, that the knowl- 
edge they were forbidden to acquire, is the 
very knowledge which the Christian churches 
now think it most needful for men to have? 
Great emphasis is laid on the cultivation of 
a tender conscience, that is quick to distin- 
guish what is right from what is wrong. 
But the Lord God said to our first parents: 
" Of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil, thou shalt not eat : for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" 



28 THE FALL. 

If that assertion was true then, it is true 
to-day, and will be always true. What then 
are we to infer, but that the knowledge 
of good and evil, that is the power to 
discriminate between what is right and what 
is wrong is the sign that men are smitten 
with spiritual death ? Or, in other words, 
the branches have ceased to abide in the 
vine from which alone they could draw their 
life? 

The condition of perfect innocence and 
delight, called the garden of Eden, was one 
in which the inmates knew nothing but good 
(God). The original sin was finding out 
that a man may indulge thoughts and feel- 
ings that are not good ; and when a man 
has made that discovery, he is fallen. 
" Sin, when it is finished bringeth forth 
death," said the apostle ; a statement which 
tallies exactly with those awful words uttered 
by the Lord God: " In the day that thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." 

The fatal thought that a man might have 
power of himself apart from the Lord, that 



THE FALL. 29 

he might sever himself from the vine, and 
become a god unto himself, and know of his 
own knowledge what was right and what 
wrong, instead of relying wholly on the 
Lord for guidance, is represented in Genesis 
as being put into the minds of Adam and 
Eve by a serpent. It was, therefore, from 
the lowest " beast of the field/' the most 
earthy and material source that this fatal 
ambition sprung. Man turned away from 
the light to the darkness ; ceased to look 
upw r ard, and began to look downward ; 
" changed the glory of the uncorruptible 
God into an image made like to corruptible 
man." 

The desire to put a personal will in place 
of God's will, to act for ourselves and exer- 
cise our own judgment, instead of being 
glad, obedient mediums through which the 
Lord may work, is called in the Bible a 
serpent, — a sensual, earth-born suggestion. 
When the children of Israel had sinned 
while on their journey in the wilderness, 
they died of serpent bites ; and, curiously 



30 THE FALL. 

enough, they were saved from the deadly 
effects of the poison of sin, by the lifting up 
of the brazen type of the destroyer, thereby 
directing the eyes and thoughts of the dying 
sinners toward the true source of life. 

Thus is the lesson taught over and over, 
in the blessed Word of God, that as soon as 
the corporeal man learns to know both good 
and evil, he dies of the serpent-bite of sin ; 
and it is only when he forsakes that desire 
to judge for himself what is right and wrong, 
and yields himself wholly to the guidance 
of the perfect man, Christ, that he is saved. 



THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 



I have explained to you what the Bible 
means by Christ, as I understand it, — that 
Christ is the only begotten Son of the 
Father, and the Lord God mentioned in the 
second chapter of Genesis ; he is the real 
man and spiritual prototype of all corporeal 
beings belonging to the human race on 
earth, and the creator of everything finite. 
I have also considered the teaching of 
Scripture concerning the fall of man, which 
was a lapse from rectitude and consequent 
innocence, induced by the desire to take his 
life into his own hands, constitute himself 
a judge of good and evil, and draw his life 
from the earth, instead of abiding in the 
vine. From this lapsed and dying condition 
fallen men could be rescued only by infinite 
power ; hence the next subject to be treated 
is the Saviors of the World. 



32 THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 

According to my present understanding 
of truth, Christ, who was made flesh and 
dwelt among men in the person of Jesus 
of Nazareth, also appears in every individual 
human being. Each babe that is born is 
a new outward expression of the Christ, a 
visible medium, more or less perfect, through 
which he manifests himself to the world. 
Not one is so obscure or degenerate, that he 
does not in some degree reflect the image 
of this perfect prototype ; for no one comes 
into this world absolutely devoid of good- 
ness, and whatever is good proceeds from 
the Lord, who is striving to manifest himself 
through every earthly expression he has 
made. 

It is true that the children of men, spoken 
of in the parable as the " branches," do not 
abide in the vine, and consequently fail to 
bear fruit. We see painful evidence on 
every hand that men have turned the truth 
of God into a lie and serve the creature 
more than the creator. Yet these unfruitful 
branches are not wholly severed from the 
vine from which they derive their life ; for, 



THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 33 

if they were indeed cut off, they would be 
cast forth and withered, as Jesus said ; there 
would then be nothing to sustain spiritual, 
or even what is called physical life, and the 
severed branches would utterly perish. But 
the fact that the wicked continue to live and 
enjoy God's bounty proves that every earthly 
life, however dark, has some vital connection 
with the divine life which nourishes it. 

All men are expressions of the one 
spiritual prototype, better or worse mediums 
of Christ on the earth. And just so far as 
he is a clear medium for spiritual truth to 
shine through is each man a savior of those 
who come within his influence. It is Christ, 
the truth, pervading the dark world, and 
operating in the human heart, that redeems 
and saves the race ; and wherever there is a 
medium through which the light of truth can 
shine, be it never so faintly, there is a source 
of healing and saving grace to mankind. 

The most perfect expression of the real 
man, that is, the Christ, of which we have 
any knowledge, was seen in the person of 
Jesus. He was the savior of mankind. But 



34 THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 

there were men living before his time 
through whom the Christ manifested himself 
to the world in a special manner, and just 
such men have lived since his advent. All 
human beings are saviors, in so far as they 
reflect that perfect image and likeness of the 
Father, which is Christ, the spiritual man ; 
but each age has had its saviors, men 
endued with a double portion of the Christ 
spirit, and of some of these we will now 
speak. 

One of the earliest saviors mentioned in 
the Bible is Noah, who appeared on earth 
after the race of men had become very 
wicked, so that, as we read in Genesis vi., 5: 
" every imagination of the thoughts of his 
heart was only evil continually." But Noah 
found grace in the eyes of the Lord, because 
"he was a just man, perfect in his genera- 
tion, and walked with God." The account 
of his life and deeds given in Genesis clearly 
indicates that through him the outward 
human expression of the Christ was pre- 
served from utter extinction on earth. 
With him the Lord renewed the covenant 



THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 35 

formerly made with Adam ; and through 
him the branches became once more united 
to the vine. 

Noah understood, as the people about 
him did not, the spiritual condition of the 
world, and that it was the gross sins of 
those who had forgotten God that were 
surely bringing about their ruin. He saw 
too that the only salvation for the branches 
was in an unbroken union with the true 
vine, which was Christ, the Lord. Thus 
through his knowledge of the truth and 
obedience thereto were some branches saved 
and reunited to the vine, while many 
perished, because they had severed their 
connection with the only source of spiritual 
life. 

Abraham, the faithful, was in a special 
sense a savior to the people of his day. 
The people of the land and his own kindred 
had made to themselves gods in the likeness 
of things earthly, and were wholly given 
over to idolatry, so that they no longer 
understood the true source of their life. 
But Abraham still preserved conscious 



36 THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 

communion with the God of his fathers, and 
lived according to the light of truth. He 
was, therefore, bidden to separate himself 
from his kindred, and, emigrating to another 
land, established there the true worship 
of God, and a purer way of life, that should 
be a pattern to all mankind. 

The manner in which Abraham is spoken 
of in Genesis is peculiar, and not easily 
explained except on the assumption that he 
was indeed a savior of the people of his 
time in a special sense. We read that the 
Lord made a covenant with him, and 
promised, as recorded in the twelfth chapter, 
to bless him in a signal manner, and make 
of him a great nation. The third verse of 
this chapter contains language not unlike 
that applied to Jesus himself ; for the Lord 
said to Abraham, " I will bless them that 
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee : 
and in thee shall all the families of the earth 
be blessed." So also, in the eighteenth 
chapter, eighteenth verse : " Seeing that 
Abraham shall surely become a great and 
mighty nation, and all the nations of the 
earth shall be blessed in him" 



THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 37 

One cannot read attentively the biblical 
account of the life and acts of this first 
of Hebrew patriarchs without perceiving 
that in him was preserved among his people 
a knowledge of God, and he was to them a 
mediator, as in the case of the doomed 
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, for 
whom he prayed. In like manner w r ere 
Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, lineal descendants 
and successors of Abraham, singled out from 
their contemporaries, to be in a special 
sense the saviors of their times. The bless- 
ing" and covenant of the Lord were with 
them ; the Christ found visible expression 
through them more than through any others 
of their day ; and through them signal 
blessings were transmitted to all who came 
within the circle of their influence. 

It is true that, in the Bible accounts of 
these worthies, we do not see evidence that 
in them bodily, as in the person of Jesus, 
"dwelt all the fulness of the godhead." 
Of none of them can it be said, " He was 
tempted in all points like as w r e are, yet 
without sin!' The Christ found only a 



38 THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 

partial, not a perfect expression through 
their lives ; and as mediums of the truth 
they did not attain the lofty standard 
revealed to the human race in Jesus, the 
perfect savior, which was for to come. 

Moses, the great Hebrew leader and law- 
giver, was a savior of his people in a higher 
and better sense than any who had preceded 
him in the history of mankind. His advent 
on earth resembled that of Jesus in many 
important particulars. He is first introduced 
to us as a humble, helpless babe, whose life, 
like that of the babe of Bethlehem, was put 
in jeopardy by the edict of a cruel tyrant. 
The years of his early manhood were 
passed in obscurity, as were those of Jesus. 
The Lord manifested his presence to Moses 
by a flame of fire in a bush, as he subse- 
quently did to the man Jesus, in the form 
of a dove. In each case there was heard a 
voice of assurance. Moses talked with the 
unseen Christ in the cloud-capped mountain 
of Sinai ; Jesus held a similar interview in 
the mount of transfiguration. The former 
wrought signs and wonders in Egypt, as 



THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 39 

proof of his high authority ; the latter did 
the same thing when he appeared and 
taught in Palestine. Moses uttered the 
Decalogue ; Jesus fulfilled it with a pro- 
founder meaning. Moses delivered his 
people from bondage, and established them 
under a new dispensation and a code of laws 
sanctioned by the Most High; Jesus delivered 
them out of bondage to the letter of these 
laws, and revived in them the true spirit 
of obedience, under the gospel dispensation. 
Moses was sent by the Lord, as a special 
manifestation, or material appearance of 
himself, to the chosen people, just as Jesus 
was sent in a later age ; for, in Exodus in., 
10, we read: "Come now therefore, I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest 
bring forth my people the children of Israel 
out of Egypt." 

That the Lord, or Christ, did indeed 
appear in the person of Moses, as a special 
savior of his people seems evident from the 
text of the song, in which Moses explains, 
in a condensed form, the spiritual condition 
of the children of Israel to whom he was 



40 THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 

sent. This song may be found in Deuter- 
onomy xxxu., from which the following 
verses are taken : 

"Because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe 
ye greatness unto our God. 

" He is a Rock, his work is perfect : for all his ways are 
judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and 
right is he. 

"Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and 
unwise? Is he not thy father that hath bought thee? hath 
he not made thee, and established thee ? 

« * * * Then he forsook God which made him, and 
lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 

" They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with 
abominations provoked they him to anger. 

" Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and 
hast forgotten God that formed thee. 

"For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies 
themselves being judges. 

" For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself 
for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, 
and there is none shut up, or left. 

" See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with 
me : I kill, and I make alive ; I wound and I heal; neither 
is there any that can deliver out of my hand." 

There is warrant also for believing that 
the Hebrew nation produced no savior 
equal to Moses, until the advent of Jesus 
himself; for, in the tenth verse of the last 



THE SAVIORS OF THE WORLD. 41 

chapter of Deuteronoirry , it is recorded that 
" there arose not a prophet since in Israel 
like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face 
to face." 

From the time of Moses until the advent 
of Jesus the Jewish nation had a long succes- 
sion of special saviors, known as judges and 
prophets, on whom Christ impressed a 
double portion of his spirit, and through 
whom he manifested himself to his people, 
calling them back to God the Father, and 
reuniting them to himself, the true vine. 
Conspicuous among these leaders and 
saviors of the children of Israel were Joshua, 
the successor of Moses ; Samson, upon 
whom, it is recorded in Judges, the spirit 
of the Lord came mightily at times ; Samuel, 
who was dedicated by his mother to the 
service of the Lord ; David, the anointed 
king and sweet singer of Israel ; Elijah, 
Elisha, and Isaiah, prophets of the Lord, 
Ezra, the scribe ; and a long line of worthies, 
who kept the law and held to the worship 
of the true God, in a land given over to 
idolatry and evil. 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 



Thus far my letters have had reference to 
the appearance of the Christ during the 
earlier and prophetic ages of the world's 
history, ages in which the most perfect 
mediums reflected but dimly the central 
light of truth, which is the life of the human 
race. Yet it seems to me that no prayerful 
student of the Scriptures can fail to discern 
the evidence that the long line of righteous 
men mentioned in the Bible, in so far as they 
acted under the direction of the Lord, were 
earthly expressions and mediums through 
which Christ, the true vine, revealed himself. 

Now, therefore, we may turn our attention 
to that brightest of all manifestations of the 
one only begotten Son, in Jesus of Nazareth ; 
he who came in the form of a servant of the 
lowest, that he might redeem and save a 
world lying in darkness and in the shadow 
of death. 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 43 

Much might be said, did the object of this 
writing demand it, on the peculiar signifi- 
cance of the birth and child-life of this 
wonderful being, who, even at the tender 
age of twelve years, began to speak as never 
man spake. But, since it is rather with his 
career and mission as a teacher of truth that 
we have to do, I will pass this topic ; merely 
remarking that, it seems to me that, only by 
appearing among men in the humble, yet 
apparently miraculous manner in w r hich he 
did, could he have illustrated to his own 
nation and to the world the true idea of 
Christ the life of men, redeeming the world 
unto himself. 

At the time of the advent of Jesus, the 
Jews as a nation had lost the divine sense 
of the presence and power of the true God 
of their fathers, and were paying outward, 
formal worship to a deity fashioned after 
their own material and vain imaginations. 
Jesus came to announce a gospel of good 
tidings, and reveal to them, in place of what 
they ignorantly called God, that Christ who 
was the express image of the Father (true 



44 THE CHRIST IN JESUS, 

God), and the Spirit of life. He came to 
show them the true relation between the vine 
and the branches, and to verify the words, 
" Whosoever seeth me seeth the Father 
also," 

When John, the forerunner of Jesus, 
announced him as " he, who, coming after 
me, is preferred before me ; " as " the Lamb 
of God, who taketh away the sins of the 
world ; " he, whose shoe-latchet the Baptist 
was unworthy to loose ; he discerned in 
Jesus the most perfect expression and 
medium of the Christ, which had ever been 
sent among men. John well knew that he 
himself was not that Light ; but he testified 
that Jesus, about whom men were curiously 
speculating, was the true Light, which 
lighteth every man that cometh into the 
world. The burden of his testimony and 
the claim of Jesus himself was, that he came 
into the world to restore to a race which 
had lost it a knowledge of the true source 
of their life ; to assure them that the 
corporeal man with his external ceremonies 
and cares was not the real man ; that the 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 45 

God, whom they so punctiliously worshipped 
and sacrificed to in consecrated cities and 
places, was not the true God, who requires 
a spiritual worship and needs no temples or 
dwelling-place. 

Jesus came to show men how to rise into 
the true life by vital union with Christ the 
true vine ; he also illustrated to them, both 
by teaching and by example, the power 
of such a life upon the body of man. Both 
Jesus and John were confirmed in their 
belief concerning the mission of the former 
on earth by what sounded to them as the 
voice of Christ himself saying, " This is my 
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased ; " 
that is : " This Jesus is a man who is to be 
so pure a medium for truth, that through 
him I am pleased to manifest myself as the 
light and life of the world most fully." 
Henceforth all that men needed to do was to 
admit the light into the dark recesses of 
their worldly minds, and as John declared, 
make a straight path through the wilderness 
of their own evil, material thoughts for the 
entrance of the Lord's truth. 



46 THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 

Take notice, also, that before entering 
upon his work as a teacher of men, Jesus 
descended into this wilderness of common or 
material thought, that he might contemplate 
life in its unrenewed phases, and by fasting 
and prayer, overcome the temptations that 
lead men astray through the devil of selfhood. 
Here the man Jesus learned the important 
lessons that true life is derived from God, 
and man must live in the spirit, not by bread 
alone ; that man has no right to presume on 
divine protection to enable him to carry out 
purely selfish and earth-born desires, for 
that is tempting the Lord; that it is not 
for a man to seek dominion and authority 
in this world, but to serve the Lord by 
becoming a clear medium of the truth. 

Having thus tested the power of worldly 
ambition and the tempter, and become 
persuaded that there is no life for man 
except that derived from Spirit, Jesus went 
forth to preach to men, and let the Christ 
light shine through him. " And Jesus went 
about all Galilee, teaching in their syna- 
gogues, and preaching the gospel of the 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 47 

kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness 
and all manner of disease among the 
people." — Matthew iv., 23. 

The next wonderful thing in the life of 
Jesus was that, when he had overcome the 
temptations of his lower self, so that the 
union between Jesus the man and Christ 
the Lord became close and vital, so much 
of the spirit of Christ was reflected in him, 
that the sick felt the life-giving virtue, and 
were healed. We do not read that Jesus 
studied " Christian science " or any other 
form of mental healing, or that he sought to 
learn the art of Eastern theosophists and 
Hebrew cabalists. The inference is so plain 
that it seems impossible to miss it, that while 
Jesus was doing the work he came into the 
world to perform, even while he was 
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of 
Christ his father, and calling upon men 
everywhere to repent, there went out from 
his sacred person an involuntary influence 
which healed the sick with whom he came 
in contact. He was a healer of the soul ; 
but the cure of the infirmities of the flesh 



48 THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 

followed as a matter of course. He healed 
men of whatsoever diseases they had, not 
by science^ for he had none ; but the whole- 
ness of the Christ-life pervading the minds 
and hearts of those who listened to his 
divine words, filled them with a new sense 
of life, that made them whole. 

So clear was the evidence of this fact, that 
observers like Nicodemus, exclaimed, " We 
know thou art a teacher come from God : 
for no man can do the wonderful works 
which thou doest, except the spirit of God 
work through him." 

It is impossible to conceive how a man, 
charged with the mission of saving the 
world and reuniting mankind to the spiritual 
source of all life, could consent to lay aside 
his father's business, while he vied with the 
physicians and magicians in curing the 
bodily ailments of the people who flocked 
about him. It was spiritual wholeness 
which he sought, — a wholeness that included 
health to the body, but never produced the 
latter and least important, without working 
the greater transformation typified by the 
" new birth." 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 49 

It is only on such a supposition that Jesus 
could have dismissed the messengers sent 
by John to inquire who he was, with the 
answer, " Go your way, and tell John what 
things ye have seen and heard ; how that 
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, 
to the poor the gospel is preached." 

And how is the spiritual sense of the 
beatitudes and precepts contained in the 
Sermon on the Mount to be made apparent, 
until w^e perceive that Jesus was impressing 
the Mosaic law, the letter of which his 
hearers blindly observed, with a new interior 
life? " Let your light so shine before men," 
he said, " that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in 
heaven ; " that is to say : Let the Father's 
glory — the Christ spirit — be so manifest in 
your works or conduct, that those who 
behold you may perceive that your goodness 
is the life of the Lord shining through you. 

The miracles of Jesus were instances of 
the visible manifestation of spiritual power, 
that appealed very forcibly to the material 



50 THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 

thought of those who witnessed them. 
When they saw water turned into wine, a 
multitude fed in the desert with a supply 
of food scarcely sufficient to give each a 
little morsel, a great draught of fishes taken 
where men had fished all night without 
taking any, they could not help believing 
that he who had power to produce such 
results in the natural world possessed indeed 
a spirit of which they did not know. 

In this connection, I wish to assert my 
belief that there is a spiritual condition, not 
well understood, but which it is possible for 
men to attain, whereby they may exercise a 
power over nature and the things of the 
external world. He, who was creator of 
everything finite, might easily exercise that 
creative force in such a way as to produce a 
given effect at any time. It surely could 
not be impossible for Christ, the Lord, who 
created the heavens and the earth, the sea, 
and all that in them is, to work the change 
whereby the water became wine, a few 
loaves were multiplied into a bountiful 
supply of bread, and a school of fish were 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 51 

collected in a particular locality. Jesus was 
so filled with this power of Christ, that such 
acts were easy to him ; and I cannot help 
thinking that it is possible for any one to do 
like wonderful works, who is a clear medium 
of spiritual power. 

But while Jesus occasionally displayed 
such power over the elements of nature, he 
still taught the people that such physical 
good was not the highest end to be sought. 
He showed them that it was not the water 
or wine drunk to quench bodily thirst, but 
the water of life that men should crave, 
which, if once tasted, would prevent the re- 
turn of thirst ; for it would be in them, a well 
of water springing up unto everlasting life. 
He bade his followers seek not the bread 
which perisheth, but the true bread of life, of 
which, if a man eat he shall never die. And 
further, he declared that he, the Christ speak- 
ing to them through his corporeal lips, is that 
bread of life. " Labor not for the meat which 
perisheth," were his words, " but for that meat 
which endureth unto everlasting life." 

Another very important feature of the 



52 THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 

teachings of Jesus is his doctrine concern- 
ing death and the resurrection. He was sur- 
rounded by those who held that, at the death 
of the body, the soul or ghost departed to 
sheol, or the under world, there to tarry for 
an indefinite period, until a final judgment 
day ; those who accepted the belief in Hades, 
borrowed from the Greeks and Romans ; 
those who believed like the Egyptians that, 
after death, the soul passes onward through 
a long cycle of changes, till it reaches the 
awful tribunal of Osiris, the chief of the 
Egyptian deities ; those who, like the Sadu- 
cees, professed to believe in annihilation, and 
that physical death ends all. To all these 
people Jesus declared a new doctrine of life, 
and put a new meaning on what they called 
death. 

It was to these people that Jesus said : 
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man 
keep my sayings, he shall never see death." 
" Whosoever liveth andbelieveth in me shall 
never die." " I am the resurrection and the 
life." To listeners holding the common no- 
tions about death such words must have 



THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 53 

sounded strangely ; and yet, how is it possi- 
ble to avoid the conclusion that he who 
uttered them, was not speaking of that 
change which comes at last to every human 
body? More sayings are in accord with the 
declaration of Paul, that, " as in Adam all 
died, even so, in Christ shall all be made 
alive ;" and with that other utterance of 
Jesus : " He that saveth his life shall lose 
it; but he that loseth his life for my sake 
shall find it." 

The doctrine of the resurrection announced 
by the Master, while he stood with the 
mourners at the tomb of Lazarus, does not 
seem to me to have any reference to the 
revivifying of the body. The death he re- 
ferred to, and out of which he was able to 
raise mankind, was that spiritual condition 
into which men come who sever themselves 
in thought and belief from the true soucre of 
life, and live as of themselves. He came to 
revive in the soul the sense of dependence 
on Christ for spiritual life, to unite the 
broken branches to the vine ; hence he 
could say with the utmost propriety, " I am 



54 THE CHRIST IN JESUS. 

the resurrection and the life." His mission 
was through the power of living truth to 
raise men out of that state of spiritual apathy, 
in which they had lost vital connection with 
the true vine, and restore to them real life, 
by making them conscious of that interior 
change, which he elsewhere called the " new 
birth." What he taught was that, until men 
lose their lives, that is, part with selfishness, 
they cannot save their lives spiritually. For 
all real life is derived from the Lord ; and 
when a man comes to understand and believe 
this, " even though he were dead, yet shall 
he live." 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 



What I now have to write, in reply to 
your last questions, bears directly on the 
subject of mental or Christian healing, about 
which you are so anxious to learn. It has 
taken some time to reach this point ; but, 
believing as I firmly do, that true healing 
cannot be understood until the Bible doc- 
trine concerning Christ is clearly appre- 
hended, I have tried to expound it to you, 
as it has been shown me, in order to have a 
sure foundation upon which to base a theory 
of those remarkable cures, which are puzzling 
so many curious people to-day. 

As I have already intimated, it seems 
evident to me that healing, as practised by 
Jesus, began with a spiritual renovation, and 
ended by producing moral, then mental, and, 
finally, physical wholeness. In such cures 
the steps of the process follow each other in 



56 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

natural order ; for the stream is first purified 
at its source, and then the healing waters 
carry life and soundness to every part. 
There may be a bodily change, called a cure, 
that begins and ends with the material ; but 
it is not what Jesus meant when he asked a 
sufferer, " Wouldst thou be made whole ? " 
He taught that it was the truth that made 
men free ; free from sin, free from fear of 
harm, free from the bodily ailments conse- 
quent on sin and fear. Wholeness was the 
result of abiding in the vine, a most natural 
instance of cause and effect. 

I am not one of those who hold that the 
earthly mission of Jesus was to be a doctor, 
and go about curing bodily diseases. What 
happened to those who came under his 
treatment was only the natural experience of 
a saved soul ; their sicknesses being the 
results of sin, of turning away from the 
Christ-life, when they repented and were 
reunited to the true vine, a thorough healing 
could not but result. I do not believe that 
a man is saved until he is free from sin, — 
I do not believe he is saved until he is free 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 57 

from bodily disease ; but I believe that the 
last result follows naturally from the first. 

Jesus, when on earth, worked his cures 
without the use of visible means of the nature 
of medicines. He also enjoined it upon his 
disciples and apostles to heal the sick in the 
same way ; and we find that, after his 
departure, the same power came to them, or 
acted through them, for they, too, healed, by 
invoking the name of their master. 

But while working in this wonderful way 
themselves, Jesus and his disciples did not 
condemn the use of other means. They did 
not need to employ or recommend material 
agents ; but there is no record of their 
condemning the use of drugs and mechanical 
means of helping the sick, because they in 
their treatment were able to dispense with 
all these. And the lesson plainly taught us 
is that, if we have reached a condition in 
which we do not need the presence of a 
material remedy, to change the thought in 
sickness, but can safely rely on the direct 
operation upon the mind of spiritual forces, 
we should praise God for this, and pray con- 



58 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

stantly that our lives may so reflect the truth 
that has mercifully been made plain to us, 
that our brother man may take knowledge 
of us that we have indeed been with Christ, 
and be led to glorify God also. 

Nor should we scorn the services of an 
honest physician or nurse, because we seem 
no longer to need them. When they admin- 
ister a medicine to change the thought 
of the sick, the same power that healed 
those who sought to be made whole by the 
Savior brings health to their patients. 
Medical men may sometimes have mistaken 
the true province of the remedies they 
administered, but we have no reason to 
doubt that they have been the means of an 
untold amount of good in the past, and will 
be needed for years to come. It will cer- 
tainly be a long time before the majority 
of men will come to believe that the diseases 
from which they suffer can be cured by any 
other than physical or medicinal agencies. 

But new light on this subject may come 
to an honest doctor, as well as to the 
non-professional ; he may be led to see that 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 59 

it is not his medicine that heals, and that it 
is possible to dispense with material means, 
and produce even better results. A case in 
point comes to mind. Not long ago a well 
known physician, while riding about among 
his patients, became greatly absorbed in the 
problem of what, after all, it is that restores 
health. He knew that the power was not in 
the drugs ; he felt that it was not in the 
physician; — What then cured the patients? 
and how were the sick restored when under 
the care of so-called Christian healers? He 
pondered the subject long and anxiously ; 
and at length it came into his mind that it 
was "the love of God in the heart" that 
cured the sick. Nor did he reason unwisely ; 
for surely we are taught that it is the love of 
God in the heart that casteth out all fear. 

The doctor had solved the question, and 
found the secret of health. The love of God, 
which passeth all understanding of material 
thought, casteth out all fear; and since fear 
is the parent of disease, sickness disappears 
when that is cast out, or destroyed. This 
perfect love is the motive power in the world 



60 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

to-day, working throughout the universe, 
changing, cleansing, and healing the soul. 

I am often asked how it is that I heal. 
But I do not believe there is a living being 
on earth who can explain in a satisfactory 
manner how this wonderful healing is done. 
Mental healers generally consider that the 
power comes to those who study into and 
accept the peculiar teachings known as 
" Christian science/' and forms akin to that. 
But to this view of the case I do not assent; 
and, in order to make my own position clear, 
I will give you somewhat in detail my own 
experience. 

Before attempting this, however, allow me 
to record my conviction that there is good in 
all forms of healing, in which it is the earnest 
wish of the operator to help the sick by 
leading them to turn away from mere bodily 
troubles and material remedies, to the one 
only source of genuine healing power. 
Hence there should be a spirit of unity and 
love and not of antagonism between them. 
And, in fact, the best evidence, and the only 
evidence that they are working in the spirit 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 61 

of Christ, that is, are filled with and controlled 
by his spirit, is that they entertain a cordial 
love for each other, and seek each others 
good as well as each his own. If a person 
who practises mental healing according to 
one particular method which he has learned 
treats all who follow different ways of healing 
as malpractitioners and evil doers, he surely 
fails to furnish the best and most reliable 
proof that he is himself actuated by the 
spirit of Christ ; and if he calls his own 
method Christian healing, and condemns all 
others as unchristian, no good people who 
understand this will believe that he really 
belongs to the fold of Christ. 

The possibility of a mental cure or faith- 
healing is believed in by the church in which 
I was educated, and I did some very satisfac- 
tory work of that kind before I made a 
special study of any special way of using the 
art. Later I took a course of lessons in 
what is called " Christian science." It 
seemed to me, after getting somewhat 
acquainted with people of this way of heal- 
ing, that they have gotten hold of one side of 



62 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

a great truth, which is grasped more or less 
firmly ; and in the class I joined there were 
honest seekers after truth, who were led as I 
was to attend the course of instruction given 
by the " Christian science " teacher, hoping 
to receive important spiritual help. 

The lessons consisted of a series of twelve 
talks by the teacher, on subjects presented 
in the following order: First, their doc- 
trine concerning God ; second, concerning 
mind; third, concerning matter. We were 
told, in substance, that God is one ; principle, 
and not a person ; life, truth, and love ; 
the only intelligence and substance in the 
universe. God is omnipotent, omniscient, 
and omnipresent ; hence he fills all space, is 
all, and there is nothing else but God. 
Moreover, God is perfectly good ; hence 
there can be no such thing as evil ; and if 
there is no evil, sin, sickness, and death, 
which are the consequences or effects of 
evil, have no reality. 

Having assumed what had been asserted 
concerning God as proved and accepted, the 
teacher proceeded to argue that all that God 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 63 

created must be like himself, perfect and 
spiritual. The world, therefore, which is 
the creation of God, and all living creatures 
are like him, and must be spiritual. Hence 
all is mind or idea ; and nothing else can be 
real. To put the case in other words, mind 
is the only reality, and what men call matter 
is a delusion, a false belief. There is really 
no such thing as a body, a tree, a flower, a 
landscape, a sheet of water, or, in fact, 
anything that we are wont to call material. 

Of course, the body being unreal, it was 
easy to assume that the bodily ailments, 
called disease, cannot be real ; and, since 
" God is of purer eyes than to behold 
iniquity," and human beings are created in his 
perfect image, there can be no such thing as 
sin and consequent death. Such being the 
case, one has only to hold these facts firmly 
in mind, in order to heal the sick. 

But plain as this theory of the world 
appeared to the teacher of " Christian sci- 
ence," I was not so thoroughly convinced 
but that a number of troublesome questions 
arose in my mind. " If all sin and pain and 



64 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

death be unreal and a delusion," I asked, 
what is it that is forever struggling with the 
delusion, and trying to get free from the 
effects of a wrong belief ?" The answer 
was, " There is no one struggling or trying 
to get free ; it is simply a dream or imagina- 
tion." "Then who is the dreamer?" I 
asked, still more perplexed. " There is no 
dreamer," replied the confident teacher ; and 
I was not disposed to press the matter any 
further. 

There are many things insisted on as true 
by those who profess to believe " Christian 
science " which it is not easy to put faith in. 
Much must be assumed on the authority 
of some persons assertion, for which no 
satisfactory reason is given and no sanction 
is to be found in Scripture. They affirm 
that there is no evil, no sickness, no death ; 
our belief that such conditions exist is only a 
dream of a dreamer who has no reality ; all 
is God ; all is good ; all is perfect ; all is 
harmonious ; you are not sick ; you have no 
pain ; and this work of healing many consider 
the most important work in which a human 
being can engage. 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 65 

I would by no means imply that " Christian 
scientists" are not sincere in their belief, or 
that a theory that appears so absurd to others 
does not seem correct to them. It does 
seem so, and while holding it, many of them 
apparently do good work as mental healers. 
But I wish to show you by contrast, in what 
respects my own understanding of truth and 
the way to heal differs from theirs. 

I also believe that God is spirit ; that he is 
the only life, truth and love ; the only 
intelligence and substance ; and that he fills 
all space, so that he is everywhere present. 
I hold, too, that God, through mind, controls 
all things. But, as to what is termed matter, 
while I would not quarrel with those who 
take a different view, I prefer to call it an 
outward expression of spiritual substance, 
through which God manifests his omnipotent 
power. These bodies of ours are the 
temples of the living God, and constitute 
with external nature, that continual creation 
which Christ, the only begotten Son, puts 
forth from the beginning. 

This created being, whom I have already 



66 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

designated in these letters as the corporeal 
man, had permission, you will recollect, to 
enjoy everything that is good ; he was inno- 
cent and upright so long as he recognized 
his dependence upon the true source of life. 
But this corporeal man disobeyed, came to 
constitute himself the reality and source of 
power; hence he fell from his state of inno- 
cence, and with this sad lapse came discord, 
disease, death. I do not annul the force 
of this belief by declaring that sickness, sin, 
and death have no reality. They are the 
proofs of a wrong condition of thought on the 
part of the victim ; and show that he has 
departed out of that state of innocence, that 
garden of Eden, into which nothing evil 
can enter. What we call evils, though really 
such to the thinking of the created or corpo- 
real man, have no effect on the spiritual 
man, who is Christ ; and whenever we 
become reunited to him, the only life, as the 
branch is joined to the vine, then we truly 
live again, and there is no longer any 
sickness, sin, or death for us ; we have 
passed from death unto life ; have lost that 



THE HEALING CHRIST. 67 

self-constituted life in the flesh, and have 
found the true life, which, if a man have, he 
shall never die. 

While he continues in this fallen condition, 
man does not understand the true state of the 
case, or realize his relation to the true vine 
or source of infinite life. He is like one in 
a troubled sleep, unconscious of the realities 
around him, but just enough awake to know 
that he is under a spell, from which he strug- 
gles to get free. In this disturbed dream of 
the senses evil demons and frightful fancies 
haunt him, and he tries to awake, and dispel 
the nightmare that holds him fast. If this 
sleep overcomes him, he passes into that 
terrible condition, described in the Bible as 
being dead in trespasses and sins, — a death 
from which he will never awake until that 
resurrection morn, when Christ, the true life, 
shall quicken again that which remains and 
is ready to die. And this quickening, when 
it comes to a man is true healing, and works 
a thorough reform. 

I believe in the terrestrial body of which 
Paul speaks, on which mind or thought 



68 THE HEALING CHRIST. 

operates, either to purify or defile, according 
to the moral condition of the man ; for " as 
a man thinketh, so is he." You see, then, 
that I hold that we have bodies, and are 
responsible for their safe-keeping ; and if we 
harbor evil and hurtful thoughts, these will 
surely be reflected some time in some form 
on the body. 

It may be well to say in addition to what 
is already written, that I do not believe that 
God is in any way the author or cause 
of evil. In Adam all died ; man is the 
cause of evil and the only sinner ; but with 
God all is pure, and in Christ are all 
spiritually made alive. When, therefore, we 
are, as Paul expresses it, " hid with Christ in 
God," we shall become new creatures in 
Christ Jesus, and free from the power of the 
law of sin and death. 



HOW I TREAT. 



You ask me to explain to you more fully 
how I treat disease, and how what you are 
pleased to call my peculiar theology applies 
to the healing of the sick. These questions, 
which are the most difficult of any that bear 
on the subject, I will try to answer, to the 
best of my ability. But what I have to say 
on these points has a direct relation to all 
that I have written thus far, and will not 
appear plain to you, unless you keep in mind 
the main facts in regard to Christ and the 
condition of the corporeal man, as I have 
tried to set them forth. 

It is true as you observe, that I do not, like 
those who call themselves " Christian scien- 
tists," hold that the body and its diseases are 
nothing. I accept those facts ; but, having 
done so, I wish to know how such discordant 
conditions as sickness and suffering came 



70 HOW I TREAT. 

about. Was it by holding pure thoughts? 
Was it by having our minds stayed on God, 
who will keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on him? Was it by worship- 
ping the Creator more than the creature? 
Did these conditions come upon men while 
they relied solely on Christ, the Lord, as the 
only source whence they could derive life 
and power? 

The very fact that sickness and pain have 
become part of the inheritance of mankind 
shows that the race has departed from that 
state of true vital union with the source 
of life in which it was created. Men have 
turned away from God to trust in an arm of 
flesh, and wrong thinking and wrong beliefs 
have brought them into the sad condition in 
which we now find them. Men came to 
believe not only that external nature and 
their own terrestrial life is more real than 
spirit and spiritual life, but that the source 
of life and the power to act are in these 
external expressions of real and absolute 
being. This led them to forget the spiritual 
reality which all the while lies back of their 



HOW I TREAT. 71 

individual being, sustaining and enforcing it 
with power, and to glorify man rather than 
God, to trust in a material, worldly wisdom 
more than in that wisdom that is from 
heaven. Thus man gained the world, but 
lost his own soul. 

Since the fall, man has seemed to be 
under the curse of a law of sin and death, 
from which he could see no door of escape, 
except that of physical death ; and this law 
which he recognizes and obeys, makes him a 
servant and a slave. It would seem, then, as 
if these evils from which men suffer under 
the law of sin and death did not originate 
with God, who cannot be the author of evil, 
but from some other force operating in 
opposition to God and his government. So 
strong is this impression fixed in the common 
mind, that we find that a majority of men 
believe there is a principle of evil active in 
the world, as well as a principle of good, and 
that the two are antagonistic. 

But we, who hold that one good and 
perfect Intelligence created all things that 
exist, and constituted his holy will the law 



72 HOW I TREAT. 

by which all force acts, must find a way 
of accounting for what is called evil, without 
admitting the existence in the universe of an 
active principle that does not emanate from 
the one Creator, but is opposed to him. 
The right view of the case, it seems to me, is 
to regard what seems to us evil as a perver- 
sion of good, and what seems false as a 
perversion of truth. The sun shines every- 
where with intense and steady light ; and 
bathed in that light, all things about us 
appear as they really are, and assume proper 
proportions. Yet it is possible to so exclude 
that light from a given space, a room, for 
instance, that the objects in that darkened 
space will seem distorted as we look at them, 
so that the dim, shadowy outlines of pieces of 
furniture take the shape of animals, or human 
forms, or, it may be, of those phantoms 
of the brain we name ghosts. Just so it is 
when the mind becomes partially darkened 
by shutting out the clear light of truth, — 
objects and relations no longer appear as 
they really are, but become what our wrong 
thinking makes them. The truth is not 



HOW I TREAT. 73 

changed on that account ; its light is still 
perfect, and there is nothing but truth ; it is 
only our finite notion of it that has changed ; 
and this apparent change comes about when 
the real man in us is not in authority, and 
the earth-born selfhood in us assents its 
opinion of the condition of affairs. From the 
standpoint of spirit there is always light, and 
truth, and harmony ; from the standpoint 
of the bodily senses arise discord and all 
error. 

It is from these limits of selfhood, this law 
of sin and death to which we are in bondage 
through fear, that Christ comes to free us. 
Paul thanked God that he was delivered 
" from the body of this death," through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord ; and every human being 
who, weary with struggling against a legion 
of self-constituted evils, comes to Jesus in 
the right way, finds rest. When we are 
willing to be mediums through which truth 
may shine, instead of champions ready to 
fight the truth, then the shadows and gob- 
lins of night depart, and the full daylight 
of the sun of righteousness illumines every 
dark corner of our mental vision. 



74 HOW I TREAT. 

The all-important starting point for a 
healer to keep in mind is that true healing 
comes through Christ and in no other way. 
" Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me 
clean," expressed the confident belief of a 
poor sufferer who applied to Jesus ; and this 
is the ground for every healer to take. 
When we have a confident assurance that 
Christ is able to make any patient whole, we 
have taken the first right step. 

Having taken the attitude of entire reliance 
on spiritual power, and abandoned all hope 
or expectation of being cured in any other 
way, both healer and patient are prepared to 
claim the Savior's promise that, if we call 
upon him in the day of trouble, he will 
answer us and deliver us. We take our 
patient in prayer-thought to the very source 
of healing power, realizing that Christ fully 
understands the case and is able to supply 
just what is needed to produce the change 
desired. 

Thus brought face to face with the one 
perfect life and the power which alone can 
make perfect ; fully realizing that we are 



HOW I TREAT. 75 

not that power, and can do nothing of our- 
selves to produce the health we seek, we 
come into a condition of mind to see that our 
own personal struggles with disease and sin 
are of no avail ; and that even when we 
strive to conquer the evil in ourselves by 
bringing some chosen truth to bear upon it, 
we make no headway. 

When at length we perceive that, in all 
moral cleansing, it is God that worketh in us 
both to will and to do of his own good 
pleasure, and realize that it is not for us to 
combat error with truth, but simply to give 
up our personal will, and in lowly faith let 
the spirit of all truth shine and work through 
us, then, and not till then do we become 
strong with the strength that Christ supplies. 
Then alone do we come into an attitude 
where all the power of the universe of God 
operates in and through us, producing moral, 
mental, and bodily health. This condition 
is truly resting in the Lord, choosing to 
have his will done rather than our own, and 
waiting in confident expectation, as did aged 
Simeon, to see the salvation of God. 



76 • HOW I TREAT. 

It goes without saying that the state of 
perfect rest and trust herein described 
enables one to exercise that love which 
casteth out fear. It is the sweet confidence 
and repose of a little child in a parent, who, 
he is sure will take care of him and do what 
is best for him. Feeling thus, the trustful 
soul has no farther anxiety, but leaves all 
issues in the hands of an infinite and loving 
Father, who is more ready to give good gifts 
unto his children than they are to receive 
them. One who attains such a calm state 
of mind, a mind stayed on God, cannot 
worry, does not fear, has no solicitude about 
the issue of his case ; for he rests in the 
Almighty arms, trusts in Infinite wisdom, 
and knows that whether he live or die, the 
result will be for the glory of God, and the 
very best thing that could happen. 

Was it not because the condition here 
indicated, my friend, is the true Christian 
attitude and spirit, that Jesus so often 
exhorted those who would enter the kingdom 
of heaven to become as a little child? And 
when we enter the presence of that mighty 



HOW I TREAT. 77 

power in which we live, and move, and have 
our being, what are we but little children, in 
our ignorance and helplessness? Even the 
puny will we so foolishly set up against the 
divine will is a power derived from God. 
Every remedial agency we make use of for 
the recovery of the sick owes whatever 
virtue it may have to the operation of God's 
direct healing power imparted to it or work- 
ing through it. The very life to which we 
cling so fondly, and to preserve which we 
are ready to make any sacrifice, is the 
spiritual life flowing through us, and nothing 
of our own. Nay, we ourselves, what are 
we but various external expressions of the 
one life that fills all space? 

If this position be the correct one, what 
are the thoughts with which a healer should 
regard a patient whom he is called to treat? 
I have noticed that, in no two cases among 
those whom the Lord has been pleased to 
heal through me, has my prayer- thought for 
them been precisely the same. With one, 
I seem to plead that he may be brought 
to Christ and be born again, and realize that 



78 HOW I TREAT. 

he is in the presence of the Savior ; another 
I seem to hold in the prayer that Christ will 
illuminate his dark mind and thus change 
the condition of his thought; again, I try to 
make a patient realize that I have no power 
to heal or save him, and can only point him to 
the one savior of all, whom each must accept 
for himself. These were some of my thoughts, 
not spoken, of course, only present as a 
deep, earnest prayer for the patient desiring 
to be healed. But, after all, it is not an act 
or a particular thought or prayer that effects 
the cure ; it is the condition of the healer, 
reflected upon the mind of the patient in 
such a way as to change his thought. 

So far as the bodily effect of treatment is 
concerned, it is felt, of course, in the mind 
of the patient. He is operated upon, so to 
speak, through his thought which is changed. 
But it is not needful for a healer to have any 
particular theory about the operation of this 
subtle mental influence, because it is some- 
thing independent of his own will, that flows 
out without his seeking to produce the effect. 

The fact that certain persons exert healing 



HOW I TREAT. 79 

power in a greater degree than others has 
led many people to regard it as a special 
gift, possessed in large measure by some 
persons, and not at all by others. But if the 
view of Christian healing set forth in these 
pages be a correct one, the power to work 
cures is not a gift, in any such sense as the 
word is here used, but comes to those who 
are in a proper condition to be good mediums 
of truth. Nor is the power of healing limited 
to the use of some particular method or 
means. All ways are good ways or bad 
ways, just in proportion as the person who 
adopts them is guided by the spirit, which 
alone can cure. But in no case will the 
patient be made whole if he seeks health for 
his own selfish advantage, in order that he 
may continue to gratify the desires of the 
flesh. 

After all, explain this mystery of healing 
and the regeneration of man as we will, there 
is still something about it we can never 
understand, and that baffles our deepest 
research. I do not know how Jesus wrought 
the miracles of healing ascribed to him. I do 



80 HOW I TREAT. 

not know how any case of radical cure is 
produced. Of course, we may say, as the 
" Christian scientists" do: "God is Spirit. 
He is the only intelligence, life, and substance 
in the universe ; omnipotent, omniscient, 
omnipresent. He is perfect, therefore his 
creation is perfect ; and man, made in his 
own image and likeness, must be a perfect 
spiritual being, not subject to sickness, sin, 
and death. These evils, therefore, have no 
reality, but are delusions and dreams." But 
does all this formula explain anything, or shed 
the faintest light on the mystery of healing? 
I have no doubt that any body may learn to 
treat disease with success ; nor need he 
know how the effect is produced, in order 
that it may come to pass. But I also believe 
that it is impossible for any man to compre- 
hend the process of mental cures, or deter- 
mine what particular mode of treatment is 
the best. 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE 
PATIENT. 



One of the most difficult things connected 
with any theory of mental healing is to 
determine what attitude the patient or 
subject of healing must take. Many dif- 
ferent views on this question are held by 
successful healers : some assert that it is 
necessary for the sufferer to exercise faith in 
the method of mental treatment, and also 
that he believe in the healer ; others, equally 
sincere, take opposite ground, and declare 
that it makes no difference with the result 
of treating whether the recipient have any 
faith in the means or not. I think, however, 
that these varying opinions are mainly due 
to a difference of opinion as to what consti- 
tutes a genuine cure. You can readily see 
that a change in the physical condition that 
a physician would pronounce a cure is a very 



82 WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

different thing from a thorough moral reform 
which ends in the restoration of the sick 
patient to bodily health after moral soundness 
is attained. 

" Christian scientists " claim that their 
treatment reaches beyond a mere bodily 
cure, and produces a thorough moral trans- 
formation, so that the subject of it leads a 
better life ever after. At the same time 
there are among those who practise what is 
called mental or metaphysical healing, who 
aim in their treatment only to produce a 
restoration to physical health, and are quite 
content to withdraw their services when the 
signs of this outward change appear. 

You will perceive from what I have already 
written, that there are practically two forms 
of healing, one done on the physical or 
material plane alone, the other accomplished 
through the renewing and regeneration of 
the whole man ; and because the first may 
take place without involving the second, it is 
important to keep the distinction sharply in 
mind while discussing what is required of the 
patient. 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 83 

While I should not be satisfied with a 
healing of bodily disease that went no 
further, I am willing to grant that such a 
change may be produced by mental means 
as well as by medicine, and will, therefore, 
try to answer your questions about it, before 
proceeding to explain what to me is the only 
true and permanent healing wrought through 
the transforming power of the Christ. 

I am well satisfied that there is a natural 
law of the action of mind upon mind, in 
accordance with which the thought of one 
person may be brought so powerfully to bear 
upon the mind of another as to change his 
physical condition. We see numerous 
examples of the operation of this law in 
every-day life, and can have no reasonable 
ground for doubt that this personal influence 
may be powerfully exerted either for good or 
for ill. The most common instances of it 
are, perhaps, where one person seeks to 
control or compel another to a certain course 
of action against his will. But the same 
power may be used to promote the welfare 
of a fellow man. 



84 WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

The explanation of this mental phenomenon 
is very simple. If we grant what all mental 
healers claim that diseased bodily conditions 
are nothing in themselves, but are simply 
the evidence or outward manifestation of 
discordant mental states and wrong thinking, 
it is easy to understand how a person of 
positive character, who thoroughly believes 
that right thinking promotes and produces 
health, may so dominate the mind of a sick 
person as to inspire in him a like belief. 
A strong personal will may also aid such a 
healer in getting the mastery of the mental 
states of the patient. 

You ask how an immoral person may 
have apparent success in the mental treat- 
ment of disease, if healing is really a holy, 
Christian work. Do you not see that the 
bodily effects I have just described are not 
apparently dependent on the moral character 
of the healer, but are the direct result of 
certain mental influences of which he has 
made himself a master? Such a healer 
applies his mental remedies just as a physi- 
cian applies his medicines, to bring about 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 85 

certain physical effects ; and when this is 
done his work ceases, because he is not 
himself in a condition to cure the moral 
diseases of his patient. People are accus- 
tomed to regard the physical change and the 
disappearance of bodily symptoms as the 
sure proof that a sick person has recovered, 
and so do not ask for any other evidence to 
satisfy them that a mental cure has taken 
place, and is what it is claimed to be. 

I fear that, while they talk a great deal 
about a higher work and better way of 
living, many professional mental healers do 
not, in their own experience, get beyond the 
plane of the bodily healing just described. 
This is good as far as it goes, and they who 
engage in it are not to be despised because 
they are doing no better ; but such cures are 
not what sin-sick, perishing men most need. 
The good results are only temporary, and 
one who has been cured in this way is liable 
to have a return of the same malady and 
need curing again. 

If mankind were suffering from no deeper 
ills than the diseases that afflict the body, 



Ob WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

the kind of healing of which I have spoken 
would be as good as any other, for it would 
accomplish all that is desired. Indeed there 
are many people who do not seem to care 
for anything beyond their physical comfort, 
and who consequently prefer just this sort 
of healing when they are sick, because, while 
relieving their bodily distress and disability, 
it does not interfere with the selfish indul- 
gence of their chosen way of life. At the 
same time, while such healing is better than 
none, it is only patching a ragged garment, 
and cannot in the nature of the case be 
thorough and permanent, because it affects 
only the external symptoms of disease, but 
does not reach the cause. Let us therefore 
consider the other and more radical kind 
of healing. 

What I call true healing begins at the 
heart and produces a thorough change in the 
whole man. It is directed to the seat and 
cause of the trouble, which is the evil that 
is in thought, which produces the discord of 
which bodily disease is only the sign. 

This higher and broader view of healing is 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 87 

what the Scriptures designate as the new 
birth ; and if you would grasp my meaning 
and understanding of the conditions, it will 
be necessary for you to keep clearly in mind 
the great foundation truths that I have 
already explained. We read in the second 
and third verses of the first chapter of 
Hebrews Paul's statement that God " hath 
in these last days spoken unto us by his son, 
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, 
by whom also he made the worlds ; who 
being the brightness of his glory, and the 
express image of his person, and upholding 
all things by the word of his power, when 
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down 
on the right hand of the majesty on high." 

In this concise statement of the doctrine 
of the Christ, Paul declares that the same 
power that created the worlds, being the 
express image of God mentioned in the first 
chapter of Genesis, and the prototype of 
man, is also the redeemer and savior of the 
human race, and hath himself purged our 
sins. There is no true and thorough healing 
then, as I understand the Scriptures, except 



88 WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

that through cleansing and purifying of the 
heart and life that comes to a man through 
the acceptance of Christ and the operation 
of the truth that Christ represents. 

What men call bodily disease is the out- 
ward sign and expression of the evil within ; 
the radical seat of trouble is the sin-sick soul 
in man, crying out for the " great physician," 
longing for the balm in Gilead, asking 
" What must I do to be saved? " 

It is useless and comfortless to offer to 
such a man a windy theory of the " science 
of mind," or attempt to relieve his distress 
by treating the outward symptoms. His 
trouble is too deep to respond to any super- 
ficial remedy. Nothing will cure such a case 
but a power that can save to the uttermost 
all who apply to him. The words of " men- 
tal science " fall upon his ear unheeded ; but 
how eagerly he listens to the voice of Jesus, 
saying, " Come unto me all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

But how are we to offer this potent soul- 
medicine to the perishing sinner? and what 
are the indispensable conditions of cure? 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 89 

I claim that the first step in healing, in every 
case, is repentance. This strong Bible word, 
so often misunderstood, contains in its very 
sense the authority for saying that the 
external or bodily disease is caused by the 
evil in the heart. A scholar tells me that 
the word primarily means to punish one's 
self. When a man repents he recognizes 
the sensations of pain that are the direct 
result of the evil within him ; so that every 
physical or mental pain which a man feels is 
an acknowledgment or expression of the 
deep-seated evil that disturbs his life ; and 
when by the light of truth he brings again 
into consciousness these pangs or punish- 
ments for sin, he repents. 

The next step is confession. " Confess 
your faults one to another," says the apostle ; 
and surely a man must confess or admit the 
facts of his case to himself, or he can never 
get rid of his sins. This acknowledgment 
need not be made to a priest or a pastor ; 
but what is essential is a spirit of honesty 
that does not deny or cover up the truth. 
It implies that the subject of it is fully aware 



90 WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

of his condition, and does not regard it 
different from what it actually is. 

Faith is also required of the patient 
in order that he may be healed. In 
James v., 15, we read: " And the prayer 
of faith shall save the sick and the Lord 
shall raise him up ; and if he have committed 
sins they shall be forgiven him." Jesus made 
faith on the part of the applicant a condition 
of being healed. " Believe ye that I am able 
to do this? " he asked the blind men ; -and 
when they assented he touched their eyes, 
saying, " According to your faith be it unto 
you." Then to the one who returned to 
express his gratitude the great Healer said, 
" Go thy way : thy faith hath made thee 
whole." To one poor woman who sought 
his healing aid he said, " Thy faith hath 
saved thee : go in peace ; " to another, 
" Daughter, be of good comfort : thy faith 
hath made thee whole." 

To be truly, thoroughly healed, a patient 
must exercise ■' faith in God," a confidence 
in his healing power which amounts to a 
complete surrender of all other hopes, the 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 91 

abandonment of every other means, and 
utter reliance on Christ. It implies a readi- 
ness to forsake every evil thought or desire 
that stands in the way of recovery, and a 
belief that the cure sought may immediately 
take place. In such a state of mind the 
patient may pray for healing mercy ; others 
may pray for him that he may be healed ; 
and his sins may be forgiven. The Scribes, 
you will recollect, were sorely offended 
because Jesus, when healing a man sick 
of the palsy, changed the formula " arise and 
walk," to " Be of good cheer : thy sins are 
forgiven thee." 

No truth in the Bible is more plainly 
taught than this, that healing begins and 
ends with the forgiveness and cure of sin. 
Here is the prime cause and seat of the 
trouble, and no treatment is complete which 
fails to destroy the germ of the disease, and 
cleanse that which is within as well as what 
is external. " Woe unto you who make 
clean the outside!" declared Jesus, "but do 
nothing to eradicate the germs of evil hidden 
within." First cleanse the fountain ; then 



92 WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

will all the streams become sweet and 
wholesome. 

Note too, that Christ is constantly warning 
his disciples and followers not to mistake 
any form of superficial and partial cure for 
true and thorough healing: ''Strive to 
enter in at the straight gate ; for many, I say 
unto you, shall seek to enter in and shall not 
be able." " I am the way, the truth, and the 
life." "I am the door of the sheepfold." 
" No man cometh unto the father but by 
me." " If the truth make you free, ye shall 
be free indeed." " I am come to seek and 
to save that which was lost." "There is 
joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." 
" He that forsaketh not all that he hath and 
followeth me cannot be my disciple." 
" Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, 
Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, 
and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy 
name done many wonderful works? Then 
will I profess unto them, I never knew you." 
" My disciples are they who do the will of 
my Father, which is in heaven." 

You perceive that according to the view 



WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 93 

herein presented, Christian healing and sav- 
ing faith are one and the same thing. For 
this reason the burden of the gospel message 
to sick and fallen men is Faith. " Whatso- 
ever is not of faith is sin." — Romans xiv., 23. 
" But before faith came, we were kept under 
the law, shut up under the faith which should 
afterwards be revealed." — Gallatians in., 23. 
" For whatsoever is born of God overcometh 
the world : and this is the victory that over- 
cometh the world, even our faith." — 
I John v., 4. 

Having now explained as clearly as possi- 
ble my own idea of what in the Bible is 
meant by true healing, a simple exercise 
of genuine repentance and faith, I see no 
necessity to further burden you with any 
of the theories with which teachers of what 
is called mental healing are apt to confuse 
the learner and mislead him in his search 
after truth. The first form of healing to 
which I have alluded in this letter is not the 
kind I approve ; therefore I do not trouble 
myself or you with any theories about it. 
Take it for what it is worth, but do not 



94 WHAT IS REQUIRED OF THE PATIENT. 

neglect the better way. The door to eternal 
life is not barred against any repentant, 
humble seeker for admission. No knowl- 
edge of any theories of mind or matter is 
required to enter. " If thou wouldst enter 
into life keep the commandments." A 
knowledge of " Christian science," or any 
other science, is not necessary in order to be 
saved with a salvation that redeems man 
from the power and dominion of the law 
of sin and death, and makes him a child of 
God, a free-born heir to truth and all of the 
truth. Repentance, confession, forsaking 
sin, prayer, faith, lowly obedience to the 
teachings of the Holy Spirit, — these are the 
steps in the true healing process, and consti- 
tute the only doctrines or lessons that any 
one needs to learn, in order to recover from 
illness, enjoy the blessing of perfect health, 
and enter into that heaven of reality from 
which all sin, suffering and death are forever 
banished, and all the children of God are 
one with the Father and with his only 
begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. 



GEMS BY G. F. CHAPMAN. 



The teaching most needed to-day, is that which 
teaches man to lose his self-life, and thereby gain 
sternal life. 

Teach me how to abide in the Vine, then shall I 
become a powerful instrument of divine healing. 

Teach man to remove the beam from his own eye, 
then can he see clearly, to remove the mote from his 
brother's eye. 

You would not judge the beauty of a rose, before 
it was unfolded. Neither should you judge man's 
life and character until it is unfolded. 

Are you not trying to get outside of God to find 
him ? 

Spiritual understanding is not gained through 
struggling, but by acceptance. 

Do not exhaust all your time in asking, but devote 
some to accepting and gratitude. 

Humility is the stepping-stone to perfection. 

Perfect love does not excite, but fills with emotion. 

Our nearest and most dangerous neighbor is Self. 

From discord to harmony is not a rapid transit. 
95 



96 GEMS BY G. F. CHAPMAN. 

You cannot lose Self, except in the knowledge of 
eternal life. 

Mental darkness is not the absence of light but 
the lack of comprehension. 

God deserves more than constant petitions ; He 
deserves praise. 

God is not a present help until we are ready to 
accept his free gift. 

Soul and body healing is but the comprehension 
of our life source. 

When we are abiding in the Vine, we are only 
hid from the man of sense, not from spirit. 

If we are abiding in the Vine, why need we 
trouble about the fruit we are to bear? Certainly the 
branch cannot bear other than the natural fruit. 

Argument will never convert the world ; truth 
lived and demonstrated only can. 



GEMS BY LAILA E. CHAPMAN. 

Age i 6 years. 

Self-conceit will lead man astray. 
Vanity is no part of a Christian. 
Heavenly riches should be desired rather than 
worldly. 

Human mind is not vast enough to comprehend 
all truth at once. 

As the rose opens gradually to the sunlight, so 
truth comes to them that search for it. 

Pen cannot portray nor words express the thoughts 
of a thinking man. 

Bigotry is a stumbling-block, on the way to the 
kingdom. 

Love is the corner-stone, 
That will always stand, 
On which is chiselled 

The way to the throne 
By God's own hand. 



97 



QUESTIONS. 



Did it ever occur to you, that dominion was not 
given to earth man, but to the spiritual man (Christ) 
who was truth and life ? 

What has dominion over the fowls of the air, fish 
of the sea, and every creeping thing, except truth and 
life? 

Jacob claimed to have seen God face to face : yet 
John declared that no man hath seen God at any 
time, but did you ever realize that the man with 
whom Jacob wrestled was this man in the first 
creation, who is the Lord God, hence he saw the 
(Only Begotten) Son? 

•Did it ever occur to you that those who half 
believe are the only ones who argue the problem of 
spiritual life ? because he who has come to the knowl- 
edge of the truth fully realizes that he cannot prove 
by controversy the evidence within of immortality. 

Do you know that your condition is either what 
you make it or what you allow God to make it? The 
preference is yours. Whom will you serve? Self or 
God? 



98 



MR. G. F. CHAPMAN, 
MRS. M. E. CHAPMAN, 



TEACHERS OF THE 



Gospel of Christian Healing, 

No. 17 Howard Street, Maiden, Mass. 



Classes formed monthly, beginning September z, 

1888. 



Since the object of this instruction is not the mere 
art of physical healing, but the reformation that results 
in godly living, such only as desire the latter are 
invited to join the classes. 

The aim in these courses of lessons is, first, to lead 
students to turn from sin and death to holiness and 
life ; second, to explain how they may live in health 
and peace, and above the world ; third, to unfold the 
true meaning and purpose of prayer, especially the 
prayer of faith that will save the sick. 

^Mr, and Mrs. Chapman have in preparation 
a text-book, in which their methods and course of 
instruction are fully set forth and explained. The 
book will be ready in time for the use of classes. 

I^p 3 Mrs. Chapman has a private class out of the 
State during the month of May, and will open another 
at her residence, in June. 



